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Sidewinder asked about Tully Banta-Cain; he worked at Justin Smith’s spot with the second team. Some other notes from the first practice: Damane Duckett replaced Joe Staley at left tackle with the first team.

I asked Dashon Goldson about if he’s heard that he could be competing for the starting job with Mark Roman. “Nah,” he said, “They don’t tell you anything like that.”

He did say he feels more comfortable in the defense this season and that’s just reacting rather than thinking. If he does win the starting job, he might have to take over Mark Roman’s role as the quarterback of the defense. General Manager Scot McCloughan didn’t see a problem with that.

“You find somebody to do it, not that Dashon can’t do it, but you’d like to have a guy with experience back there,” McCloughan said. Calling the defense might fall on strong safety Michael Lewis. “Dashon is a smart kid, he could develop into that.”

HERE’S THE REST OF THE Q&A WITH MCCLOUGHAN

There was a lot of drop off in covering the second receiver last year, why was that: “You know why, because Nate is our best corner and a dam good corner. But we feel good (about the second corner) You know Walt (Harris) is Walt. He’s an older guy and he gets by with more instincts and knowing how to play than he does with his quickness and speed. He’s to the point where you got to make sure you take care of him. You can see out here, he doesn’t practice all the time. You got to make sure he’s as fresh as possible. The thing that’s important now a days is your third corner. This game is made, rule-wise, penalty-wise, for the offense to be productive. And the corner is a hard, hard position. You’ve got to get over failure quick, because you are going to get beat no matter what. The huge thing for a corner, especially in man coverage, is pass rush. You give the quarterback time, he’ll pick everybody apart. Teams recognize who the best corner is and for us, it’s Nate.”

Who’s going to compete for the nickel corner spot: “Tarrell Brown, Donald Strickland, Marcus Hudson, Shawntae Spencer. We have some DB’s which is nice. Inside (covering the slot receiver) you have to be quicker than fast, because things happen so fast in there. You got to be physical because you are close to the line of scrimmage, close to the run plays. Not everybody can do it. You can have a dam good corner, who’s not a good nickel guy, because of the physical nature. It takes a different animal to be that nickel corner. There are some good nickel guys who aren’t good outside on the island as a corner. You can get away with a lack of speed as the nickel because it’s all about quickness. Inside you got a lot of help over the top with safeties, but you have to be able to step up and tackle the running back too.

Do you like the competition at safety and right guard: “When we are talking about the safety or the right guard spot (where Chilo Rachal and Tony Wragge are competing) we are not afraid to put a young guy in there because it’s so close (talent wise). You look at tackle before we signed Barry Sims, our third tackle was (Adam) Snyder but after that, the fallout is so great, you’re scared. With those spots the fall out is not that much. The older guys have experience, but once the young guy plays he just might take over. It’s a good problem to have.

With receiver is the competition at every spot?: “I think so. You can count for sure four (will make the team) and it will be interesting to see if we keep five or six on the roster.

THE TUSSLING LINEMEN:

While I wasn’t watching the pass-rush drills the entire time, here’s what I saw.